What OVERTRAINING Looks Like! (YES IT'S REAL)

Don't let overtraining slow the muscle gains you should be seeing

Ask 10 guys in the gym what they think about overtraining and 5 will probably tell you it doesn't exist and the other 5 will be right! Overtraining is a very real problem for the natural lifter not aided by performance enhancing drugs. In fact, your body has a limited capacity for recovery (even when getting optimal sleep and nutrition) and therefore training volume must be respected.

The concept of overtraining revolves around establishing the minimum effective dose to elicit a change in your muscles. Going beyond this dose (or volume) begins to invite muscle damage or a depletion in your body's reserves needed to fuel your recovery. That said, undertraining (the opposite of workout overtraining) can also be a problem. This comes when the workout intensity is lacking and not enough of a stimulus is provided to the muscles to cause them to have to change.

The secret to a successful plateau free lifting experience is to be able to identify the symptoms of overtraining and then modify your exercise or bodybuilding workouts to eliminate the volumes causing the overtraining.

Those that are experiencing signs of overtraining or are constantly over working their muscles will become more irritable, will feel more fatigued, might have a higher resting heart rate, and see all strength and size gains come to a halt.

Other channels on youtube have addressed the concept of overtraining but perhaps not from the same shoes as many of the guys that are watching the videos and seeking out the information.

[adamnir]

"What if 2... Becomes 62?"

*Well that escalated quickly*

[huruey]

There is an effective number of analogies, but it's possible to overdo it on the analogies and you'll end up getting analogy fatigue.

[damanmax]

Cooked meat next to raw meat? Gordon Ramsay would be furious.

[Kujjiman]

I also eat my steaks with a side of 15 lb dumbells

[davemarshall]

I train 9 days a week. Gotta confuse time, right babe?

[TitoHopia]

moral of the story.. dont overtrain or you will turn into a burned steak

[simonriley]

The way I personally avoid this problem is by not working out at all.

[suppork]

My overtrain my stomach with 6 cheat meals a week.

[Stockfish]

I grew much more when i decrased my trainings from 2-3 hours to 45 or 1 hour at maximum and my gains in year was more than all previous 3 years. I never believed in overtraining, but now im totaly get it. I still have the same intensity but in shorter time and i feel much better now than i ever did.

[betolicks]

don't count the sets make the sets count

[coasgaming]

I like how he implemented visual ways for different styles of learning.

[Chris]

"You're a raw piece of meat." That sounds like a compliment coming from jeff.

[mcfullthrottle]

when I'm on my phone at the gym I'm watching athlean X

[ThePaulfullTruth]

Chronic overtraining is basically repeatedly stressing your body more than it has the capacity to recover, let alone grow new muscle and nerve tissue, thus entering into a vicious cycle which finally can reach the point of a sudden and total breakdown of nerve and muscle capacity. The more intense the chronic negative recovery cycle, the harder you will fall when you get to that certain point of no return. The system must then shut down and muscles aptrophy. Recovery can take months before the person can dare to restart the muscle building cycle again. It is also likely that the overtraining person will experience some kind of incapacitating injury in a joint or muscle, as the other progressive symptoms of irritability, soreness, fatigue, etc. creep in. This all happened to me because I thought I was superman and didn't know how to get the results I wanted in a balanced cycle of work and recovery. I now think that the easiest part of fitness is working out; the real challenge is in the recovery part of the cycle: managing your eating and resting to optimally rebuild tissue and energy. I think this guy's suggestion of a shorter more intense workout would have saved me a world of pain and suffering many years ago. I'll take it as a firm affirmation of what I have learned the hardway.

[jamescaputo]

One of the best fitness channels on YouTube. I love everything about this man.

[alec]

That meat analogy made me laugh for some reason, just seeing jeff so serious in front of 3 slabs of meat was hilarious.

[paulmckenzie]

"That means if we were to do 20 sets... TWENTY. SETS. across the workout, that we still would be at 40 minutes. ..What are you guys doin' that are training for 90 minutes? How could you possibly be train... you're not doin' this. And as I said you're already at 23 seconds in a set. So if you're at 23 seconds in a set... WHAT ARE YOU DOIN'?!

I found the disbelief and confusion in your voice hilarious, and very true.

As Rock would say... "FOCUS!".

Keep up the good work.

[travisstewart]

Sir Richard Piana is natty and he does an 8 hour arm workout

[jacobkain]

Lost my shit when you're like, "what are you guys DOING in there for so long?" ahahaha

[ossian]

Biggest time loss: looking for the weights. That guy, who takes up all the dumbbells between 8 and 40 pounds, because he is always doing supersets, somewhere in a remote corner of the gym away from the weight racks, then leaves them there. So that all passers by pick this or that one up....I spend an average of 20 minutes in every session just waiting for a  machine or equipment to be free, or looking for plates, or trying to get the matching dumbbell, usually from under that guy who just started training with something else but has not cleared up the area around (like 10 dumbbells under the bench-press....). Zero discipline in the gyms I have seen, mostly because they oversell their membership, they don't supervise, they are afraid of sanctioning bad behaviour lest they lose a customer, or they just plain don't care. Then a bunch of people who just want to hang-out show up, and between chats and apps they make a mess of things.